The Butterfly Effect
by Wise-Lionturtle
Summary: One tiny change and a lot of the future changes with it.
1. A Shocking Twist

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar**

**The Butterfly Effect**

**Note: This is my first writing piece, ever. I have never seriously sat down and written a story, but I decided to after reading a few of the ones on here. I am a huge fan of Avatar and got addicted to the show.**

Chapter 1

"Zuko!" cried out Katara. She frantically ran towards him, drawing water onto her hands to try to heal him.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck a few feet in front of her, she quickly stopped and jumped back. She ran and hid behind a column that was on one of the buildings surrounding the area. Azula was laughing hysterically.

"I'd really rather our family physician look after little Zuzu if you don't mind!" Azula maniacally shouted as she gathered more energy to release a lightning bolt at Katara again. She released it towards Katara. "Zuzu you don't look so good."

Katara bent up a wave of ice and slid across to the other side of the area, Azula was chasing her the entire way. She stumbled and fell to her knees, she quickly tried to get up but noticed something. There was a canal of water flowing directly under the grate she had landed on. She looked around for something useful. She saw a slightly long chain and grabbed it, hiding behind the pillar it was hangingon. She stepped out.

"There you are you filthy peasant!" cried Azula. Katara waited for the right moment. Suddenly she bent multiple water whips at Azula causer her to roll to the side, she compensated, placing them both standing directly above the water flow under the grate. Azula started bringing lightning up towards Katara's face, she had to act fast. She bent the water up from below the grate and put it around both herself and Azula. Too late, the lightning went off and electrified the water, it glowed.

She hit the grate and held her side, she could feel her body twitching as she tried to keep it under control. She felt herself fading in and out of consciousness as she tried to bring herself together. She bent the water around her hands and her hands healed instantly, then held her hands up to her heart but couldn't muster up the strength. She looked up to see Zuko walking towards her in a slow limp, he stopped just before her. She felt everything go black as she saw Zuko's hand spark with lightning. He place his hand on her chest.

She woke up. She looked around and saw she was in a room, laying on a bed. She removed the covers and tried to get up. She cringed as she realized how much pain she was in, she looked down at her legs and arms. She was covered in bandages and had many noticable burn marks all over her body.

She listened closely and heard voices coming from outside the door. She tried to make out what they were saying.

"She's doing well, Prince Zuko." she heard a woman say. She stood up and grabbed onto the door. She tried to open it but found herself unable use much strength. The lady must have heard some moving around because the door swung open and a nurse stood before Katara.

"Well, look who has finally woken up." said the nurse.

"Where am I?" questioned Katara.

"You're in the infirmary in the palace, you took quite a beating from what I hear. Why don't you lay down for a bit longer." suggested the nurse.

Katara looked down the hall, she saw Zuko talking to Aang. Suddenly she cringed and hit the floor. She watched as Aang and Zuko hugged, then continued out to the door. She got back up and saw the nurse with a concerned look on her face.

"I'm fine." stated Katara. She started walking down the hallway as she heard Zuko.

"Please, the true hero is the Avatar!" she heard Zuko yell.

She watched as Aang walked out and heard a lot of cheering. She walked down a staircase to the left and continued out into the crowd. She looked around until she spotted her father and Sokka standing next to eachother, clapping and cheering. It must have been Zuko's coronation.

Sokka caught her eye and crutch-sprinted toward her. He came to a quick halt as he neared her and gave her a hug.

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" questioned Sokka with true concern in his eyes.

"I'm doing fine, I just want to know what happened." she replied.

She listened as Sokka explained how Aang had taken down Ozai and the last few days she had been out. She looked up to where Zuko was standing. She rememberd Zuko looming above her with his hand extended toward her chest.

"What happened to me?" she finally asked. Sokka gave her a grave look.

"...you died." he finally said. Katara's eyes widened and she looked at him with question. She was surely alive and felt better than... well decent.

"What do you mean I died?" she asked him, extremely confused.

"Zuko explained everything; after Azula's lightning went off while you guys were encased in water, the water amplified the lightning's charge tenfold. He said he got up to see both of you hit the ground."

Katara listened with amazement. How could she have been so careless to make a mistake like that. Then it hit her.

"Wait? I was dead?" she questioned.

"Zuko came up to you as you appeared to go unconscious," he explained. "he channeled the electricity into his hand and placed it on your heart, he said he was so afraid it was going to kill you." he continued. "Katara... he restarted your heart."

She looked up at Zuko in absolute awe. She couldn't believe what she was just told. How could she ever repay him for something like that. He already absorbed the first lightning blow for her and now apparently used it to restart her heart after what had happened.

"Well, wait. Where is Azula?" she asked Sokka, his head lowered as he knew this question was coming on.

"Zuko used the electricity on you, Katara. All of it." he looked down.

She was astonished. He had given her life over his own sister.

Suddenly the crowd was cheering again, Zuko had finished his speech and made his way back into the palace.

"Well well," Katara turned around to see Toph standing there with a huge grin on her face. "welcome back to the land of the living again." Her faced turned to real concern. "Wasn't sure I'd ever see you again, Sugar Queen."

"I'm just glad everyone came out of this in better shape than me." she said.

"Well, perk up! That's all in the past, let's forget about it." said Toph. "There's still a lot more to be done." she continued.

"Right," she cheered up a little. "I'm going to go find Zuko." She walked off and into the palace. As she walked down the hall she encountered the same nurse from before.

"Excuse me miss," Katara said. The nurse looked over her way. "do you know where Fire Lord..." she paused and thought. Fire Lord Zuko, that's right. He was the Fire Lord now, the thought somewhat amused her but she knew he would be an excellent Fire Lord.

"...Zuko?" replied the nurse.

"Oh yes, sorry." Katara answered, realizing she had gotten lost in her thoughts.

"He must been in his room at the end of the hallway." said the nurse. "He's been checking up on you every few hours or so for the past couple days, I think he would be happy to see you up and moving around."

Katara continued down the hallway trying to think of what to say to Zuko.

Zuko undid his robe and placed it on the end table next to his bed. He was deep in thought about what had happened a few days before.

"No lightning today? What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it?" yelled Zuko trying to provoke Azula. He knew his sister was never to be challanged and it had been a very intense match so far.

"Oh, I'll show you lightning!" exclaimed Azula. Zuko prepared himself to redirect it back at her. He watched as Azula went through the motions and brought up her hands. Suddenly her eyes shifted towards Katara. He knew exactly what she was going to do.

Time seemed to slow down, he jumped as hard as he could infront of the lightning headed straight for Katara. He stuck his hand out and tried to intercept it. He succeeded and brought the shot into his body and hit the ground. He blacked out.

He woke up and saw Katara bend a huge pool of water up and around herself and Azula. The lightning went off. The water glowed to the extent that Zuko had to look away because of it being so bright. He stood up. He tried to run towards the two girls but found himself severly off balance. He started walking towards them the best he could. He tripped and braced himself for the ground. He hit the ground and saw his hand, glowing with electricity. With incredible focus he stood back up and made his way to Katara. She gave him a look that was full of fear. He watched as she passed out. No movement or breathing.

He panicked. Then placed his hand on her chest, watching the electricity switch from his hand into her body. She came back in a sudden gasp for air and then lay unconscious. He looked towards his sister, who he now just realized was watching this scene play out.

She had a look of terror in her eyes, and was grasping her chest trying to breathe. He placed his hand on her neck, her heart was beating very rapidly. Then it started to slow, and eventually stopped beating. This was definately not how he wanted it to end. He sat for a minute, taking everything in.

It started to rain. He walked over to where Katara was and picked her up in his arms. He moved through the courtyard and into the palace. He placed her on one of the stone benches that lined the hallway and walked back outside into the rain. He looked to where Azula lay, covered in water. His heart sank. He walked over to her and picked her up. As he brought her inside a couple servants came out and assisted him.

He was strong, he thought. He was forcing himself to handle this situation. Although he had never liked his sister very much, he did love her. Family is family, he thought to himself.

He heard a knock at his door, he looked around and realized he was still standing next to his bed. He walked over to the door and opened it. He met eye to eye with Katara. Suddendly she lunged forward and hugged him.

"I heard what you did for me, thank you Zuko!" she said, practically in tears. Zuko held her and said nothing. He didn't even know what to say.

"You would have done the same thing in my position." he finally managed to muster. He watched as she forced a smile, she must have been really worried. "Come on," he said. "let's go out to the celebration and try to have a good time." he suggested.

He grabbed her by the hand and started walking down the hallway.

All things considered he thought the events of the last week went down pretty well. With his father out of the way and the Fire Nation headed back on a good path, Zuko was sure he could rectify the Fire Nation's status and reputation with some time of course.

"So, what's the plan now... Fire Lord Zuko." she teased.

He gave her a glance, "I think I'm going to meet with the Earth King and the Water Tribe cheif, a little face to face talking about the war will do some good. It won't be easy to get over this." he said. He believed it too, it wasn't going to be easy. I mean sure, he could convince everyone that the war was over but there will always be hatred towards the Fire Nation, at least for a while.

They made it outside to the raised platform Zuko had been standing on when he recieved his crown. People were no longer lined up, they were spread around chatting and having a good time. Zuko and Katara walked down into the crowd and ran into Aang and Toph.

"Well looky here," Toph said, turning around. "Fire Lord Zuko walkin' on his own two feet, where's the palanquin." she teased.

"Figured I come out and greet everyone, seems to be quite the celebr-" he was cut off by a loud explosion. They all turned to look. Behind a few buildings there was a cloud of smoke rising. Without a second word they all took off sprinting in that direction. Aang jumped onto the rooftops to get a better look.

He looked down and saw three or four guys firebending at civilians. He jumped down back with the group.

"There's a few guys terrorizing people a few houses over." he said. "They're firebending."

Zuko looked towards the smoke.

"Why would firebenders be attacking?" he wondered.

They reached the area where the men were all gathered around the same area, burning the buildings.

"Stop what you are doing immediately!" Zuko yelled. The four men looked in his direction.

Zuko braced himself, as well as the other three. One of the man started laughing, he walked out slowly and stepped infront of the others.

"Well if it isn't Fire Lord Zuko." said the man. Zuko recognized him somewhat but couldn't put the face to a name.

"You've got an awful lot of nerve kid." he said at Zuko. "Coming in here with your new ideas and think everyone will follow and believe you."

Zuko was staring at this guy. He couldn't believe what this man was saying.

"But the war is over!" excalimed Katara. "Aren't you guys happy there is no more fighting."

"Over? Ha. You are funny little lady." the man replied. "No, this war is far from over. We've been working for years to expand, and it is not going to end like this."

The man started laughing very sarcastically. He gave Zuko a final glare, then sprinted off down one of the alley ways. The three other men took off as well.

"Split up!" cried Aang, and they all took off after a seperate guy.

Toph chased down the guy who ran into the street. She caught up to him and tried to latch him to the ground with earthbending. He dodged it and ran into the alleys. Toph stopped moving, she put her hand on the ground and watched as the man frantically tried to take every corner he could to avoid... getting seen. She laughed a little, and bent a pillar of earth right under him, he flew twenty feet back into the street and hit the ground. She shackled him in place and went to find the others.

Katara was after the man who was near the back. He saw her ahead and sprinted after him. He ran up onto a bridge and jumped into a canal that was flowing through the town. She ran up to the stream and saw him floating down the canal pretty quickly. She started pulling the water back, backing up the canal a little bit in the process. The man was swimming as fast as he and was dumb founded when he found himself frozen to the side rails of a bridge.

The lead man and the last guy had taken off in the same direction. Aang and Zuko were hot on their tail. They dipped onto a side road and started running towards a wall. When they got to the wall the lead man jumped off the side walls twice and made it over the wall. The other man just stared and looked back as Aang jumped down ontop of him and burying him in dirt.

With ease Zuko and Aang jumped the wall. Zuko looked around.

"Where is he?" demanded Zuko.

"We lost him." realized Aang, "Let's head back and find Katara and Toph."

Zuko was furious. How could there be rebellion. People had actually wanted to carry out Ozai's wishes? He knew there would be some rebellions, but didn't think anyone would dare directly attack the palace on his coronation day.

"I'm going to get the Royal Guard to interrogate the three that we did capture." Zuko said as he approached the girls. With there being rebellions this early he wanted to make sure there wasn't a conspiracy. Then he thought for a moment. If there was a conspiracy the guard might be in on it. He would have to observe the interrogation and figure out what was really happening. He thought be was being a little paranoid, but with everything that's happened he was okay with it.


	2. The Trip Begins

Chapter 2

Zuko closed the door behind him as he left the interrogation room. He stopped and thought for a moment, if there were rebellions this early he had an entirely different problem. What if he were to somehow be overthrown and these rebels took power. No, he thought, he wouldn't let it come to that.

He walked down the hallway and entered a room off to the left that was adjacent to the interrogation room, there he was Katara, Sokka, Aang and Toph waiting patiently. Toph had her hand pressed against the wall, she looked extremely focused.

"Can you see anything?" questioned Zuko as he walked up to where they were standing.

"They haven't started talking yet, I'll let you know when." she replied. She watched as the interrogator walked up to the man sitting in the chair. It was the man that Aang and Zuko caught. She watched as the interrogator violently struck the man across the face with enough force that the chair tilted backwards before returning to its original positon. She watched as the interrogator started talking. She listened to them talk for a while when suddenly something caught her attention.

"This doesn't make sense." said Toph. "What they are saying doesn't make any sense."

"What?" Zuko said, a little unsure.

"Well, I can understand them just fine," she said. "but they aren't making conversation, it's wierd."

"What are they saying?" Zuko questioned.

Toph repeated the words they were saying, and the group agreed that it did not make any sense.

"Code!" cried Sokka. Everyone shushed him for being so loud.

"They are talking in code, I think." he said a little softer this time.

"What!" Zuko exclaimed. He started marching out the door. Suddenly he was yanked back into the room.

"Zuko wait," said Katara. "you shouldn't go storming into that room, there's a better way to approach it. Let's get what we can from what they are saying and try to decifer it, we can catch them in the act and have them arrested."

"By who?" replied Zuko. "If the Royal Guard is in on this plot then who is going to arrest them."

Katara thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure," she said. "we'll figure something out."

Zuko walked back into the room and sat down, where Sokka now had pad that he was writing everything Toph was repeating onto. He listened intently as Toph blabbered absolute gibberish. What could all of this mean.

"They gather on the night she is brightest and picked clean." said Toph. Sokka wrote it down.

Who are "they" Zuko wondered, and just how many people were in on this. He shuttered at that thought. He trusted a lot of the Royal Guard personally, perhaps it was only a few of them in on this thing. He sat down and put his hands on his head, deep in thought.

"Don't worry." said Aang. "It's probably just a small group of people who are still loyal to Ozai."

"Besides," came Katara. "You'll be able to get the full support of the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom. If they hear there is a faction trying to get rid of you and bring back the old ways, they will be sure to help."

"Do you really think this problem could be that big?" questioned Zuko.

"Well, you never know." she replied. "It's always good to have a back-up plan incase things turn out not so well."

"They've stopped." Toph suddenly said.

Zuko got up and walked to the interrogation room just as the interrogator was walking out. He locked the door and turned to face Zuko.

"He won't say a thing, sir." said the interrogator. "I suggest we place him in a holding cell for now and try again later."

Zuko carefully watched as the interrogator talked, looking for anything he might be able to notice.

"Yes, very well." replied Zuko. "Continue with the other two then, maybe they'll give us some information."

At that, the interrogator nodded and walked down the hallway and turned out of sight. Zuko walked back into the room where Sokka was looking over what he had written down. He was mumbling to himself and flipping through pages, making marks on certain words. He had to admit Sokka was very intelligent.

"Well, what now?" said Toph, lazily laying on the wooden bench that she had been sitting on before.

"I am going to continue with my schedule like normal, except I will inform the Earth King and Water Chief of this." said Zuko.

"You can't just leave the Fire Nation without its leader with a possible rebellion!" exlaimed Katara.

"Uncle will be here," he said. "besides I have to speak with them sometime, and this only it more necessary."

Aang nodded in agreement. "Well then, maybe we should come with you. If this is a lot bigger than we realize, you are going to need more than body guards to help you take out any attacks against you." he said.  
"No," said Zuko. "I don't want to risk you guys getting hurt, besides I can handle myself well enough."

"Really, Zuko. No, we're coming." said Katara. She gave him a glare. "You can't get away from us that easy." she said, her expression lightening up a bit.

"Fine," Zuko surrendered. "maybe we should get some rest then, I plan to leave tomorrow."

Everyone agreed, said their goodbyes and headed off in seperate directions.

Zuko couldn't get to sleep, his mind was too wound up by what was happening. He knew what he was getting into becoming the Fire Lord, and he didn't regret it either. He just hadn't expected a crisis to arise so quickly. Whatever the case, he was determined to stop it. With that thought he drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning he put on his regular tunic and pants, then packed his formal wear. It was going to be a long ride and he wanted to at least be somewhat comfortable. As he exited the palace doors he was greeted by everyone, the entire team was back together. Sokka had even convinced Suki to tag along. It had barely been a week and they were already back together. Zuko laughed a little inside.

"Let's go mister speedy," Toph said sarcastically, looking at Zuko lazily walk over to where they were. "you sure can sleep in."

"Yeah, it's a long trip," added Aang. "and we've got a lot of ground to cover."

"Where to first?" Toph questioned. Everyone looked at Zuko.

He thought for a moment. "Ba Sing Se." he said. He wanted to visit the Earth King first, and personally apoligize for everything that took place.

"Alright, everyone pile in! Let's go." said Aang, corralling everyone onto Appa's saddle. Everyone climbed into it and took their seats.

"Yip Yip!" yelled Aang, and Appa took off into the air.

"Uuhhh, I hate that feeling." Toph mumbled, looking a little seasick, or airsick.

"I can't believe you haven't gotten used to it." said Aang.

Zuko looked towards the back of the saddle and noticed Sokka staring intently at his pad of paper, scribbling and crossing things out every once in a while. Every so often he would get a look of excitement on his face, focus harder on the paper, then settle down as he reached a dead end.

"How's the decoding coming along?" Zuko questioned. Sokka looked up at him.

"Not bad," he replied. "not great either. I've been looking for common ways things are coded and I've come across a few things that might give a hint as to what they were saying, but nothing special. I really gotta hand it to 'em, this is one elaborate code."

"It doesn't help that you can barely read the paper because you have so many marks over it." commented Suki.

"Hey, these marks are all helping me to crack this thing." replied Sokka.

"So what's that one there?" she asked, pointing at the paper.

"That is a drawing based on information I have gathered from many lines of this complex code." he said confidently.

"Kind of looks like a doodle of your boomerang." she said.

"No, absolutely not." he claimed. Everyone was now looking at him full of doubt. "Ok, so I got bored and it helps me think."

They all started laughing.

Zuko turned his attention to Katara, "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"What?" she replied, a little confused.

"Your burns," he said. "how are they doing?"

"Oh," she replied. "I was able to heal most of the burns up and I feel much better. Except this one." she pointed at a scar that ran from the side of her neck and stopped at about her shoulder. "I'm not sure why, it is just being stubborn."

"Probably the path that most of the electricity took to spread throughout your body." Sokka chimed in. "You might not be able to get rid of it." He turned back to his paper as if he hadn't said anything.

"Hey now you and Zuko can be scar buddies!" exclaimed Toph. Katara and Zuko both blushed a little.

A few hours past by with little conversation, every once in a while Sokka would start talking about how he found something, then end it with "No, nevermind."

"Guys, I'm going to take Appa down for a little rest," said Aang as he pointed to a tiny island. It had a small beach and forest. Appa started to move closer to the island.

"Finally!" Toph exlcaimed. "Time to put my feet on solid ground again."

"Yeah," said Suki. "It'll be nice to stretch my legs a bit."

Appa approached the sand of the island and landed on it. The sand suddenly gave way and they fell about fifteen feet into what appeared to be a wooden room underneath the sand. Dust swarmed around Appa as he started into the air again, he moved a little ways away from the room and landed on the dirt at the edge of the forest.

"What was that!" Aang said coughing very rapidly.

"I don't know." said Katara, also coughing.

They jumped off Appa and walked closer to the woodern room. The ceiling was about five feet under the sand, and the room was about twenty feet square. It looked as if somebody hadn't been in this room for ages.

"What is this place." said Suki as she leaned over the edge looking down into the hole made by Appa.

"Woah..." Toph said, and darted off towards the forest.

"What are you doing?" yelled Katara.

"Getting a better look!" Toph exclaimed. When she made it out of the sand onto the solid dirt, she stopped and put her hand down on the ground. The rest of the group were catching up. Aang arrived first.

"What is it?" he questioned, placing his hand on the ground as well.

"It's an entire city!" she said in awe. "Built underneath this island!"

Everyone's face looked shocked.

"Guys, look at this." said Zuko, walking up on the group. He handed Katara and wooden post. Her face lit up with awe.

"What, what does it say?" asked Aang, walking closer to them.

"It says," she paused. "Central Water Temple."


	3. A Sturdy Cavern

Chapter 3

"I can't believe this." Katara said. "I've never heard of a Central Water Tribe."

She started in amazement at the piece of wood infront of her. She looked toward the hole that Appa had created.

"We have to go see what's down there." she said.

"There can't be much light down there, and we don't even know how old this place is. It could be falling apart for all we know!" said Aang.

"Looks stable from here," Toph said. "and we could always have Zuko make us some light."

Katara walked over to the hole and looked down. It didn't look very far and she was certain she could make it in and out with ease.

"We'll be fine guys, come on. This is huge!" exclaimed Katara. "We can't just not explore this."

"We don't have a lot of time, Katara." said Zuko. "I do have to be in Ba Sing Se in the next couple of days, and it's a long journey."

"It won't take that long, I promise." she replied.

The group walked over to the hole in the sand and looked into the wooden room revealed below.

"So," said Soph. "who's first?"

At that Zuko jumped into the woodern room and landed on the floor. Everyone gasped as he hit the floor and heard creaking.

"Seems to be sturdy." he said, jumping a few times before reassuring himself.

One by one they jumped into the wooden room and started to search it to see what they could find. As they were all looking around the room Suki came across a wooden chest.

"Guys, check this out." she said as she opened the chest. It was full of solid ice and she felt cold just standing infront of it. In the center of the chest was a frozen vile of water.

"What do you think it is?" asked Aang curiously. He grabbed it from the chest and almost immediately dropped it. When it hit it bounced a few times and landed on its side.

"What's the matter?" said Katara rushing over. Aang was shaking his hand back and forth.

"That was really cold!" he exclaimed. Showing his hand to Katara. His hand had frozen slightly where he grabbed the vile.

"Wow," Zuko said. "look at the floor."

Everyone's attention turned to the floor around the vile. The wooden floor was starting to freeze over where the vile had rolled and several inches around the vile. Sokka climbed out of the hole and disappeared.

"Hold on!" he said as he was running away.

"What do you think he's doing?" Toph asked, looking at Katara. She shrugged. Sokka came jumping back down with a heavy piece of cloth.

"We're definately going to have to bring this along." he said as he grabbed the vile with the cloth and wrapped it. He held it infront of his face and examined it.  
He quickly backed away from the vile as he felt his eyebrows start to freeze.

"What do you think makes it so cold?" Suki asked.

"I'm not sure," said Sokka. "but I'm going to put this away for later." he said as he put it in the pouch he had at his side.

"Guys, come here." Aang said as he walked over to a door on the other side of the room. "Let's see what else is here."

He opened the door and started to walk through only to be greeted by a pile of fallen rocks. He bent the rocks out of his way and continued through the door.

"I thought you said this place was sturdy!" he said looking at Toph.

"Well, your definition of sturdy and my definition of sturdy must be two completely different sturdies." she replied laughing a little bit.

Aang looked away and started walking down a hallway, everyone else closely behind. The hallway was wider than most average hallways and there were doors every ten feet or so. Zuko opened one of the doors and saw a room not unlike the one they had entered. When they reached the end of the hallway they came upon a bigger door made out of metal. Aang pushed on the door as it toppled over on the other side, making a loud thump. He shot Toph a quick look again. He then looked back and walked over the newly toppled door.

"Woah." he gasped as he saw what was on the other side. The rest of the group joined in the gasp as they walked out through the door and over to the edge Aang was now looking over. Over the edge was a giant central building about three hundred feet below where they were at, surrouneded by many different alley ways and break offs.

"This is incredible!" yelled Katara.

"I can't believe a place like this has gone unnoticed this whole time." claimed Zuko. "It must be centuries old." He looked toward the ceiling of the cavern where there were streaming waterfalls leading to a canal system which appeared to run throughout the entire city.

"How are we going to get down?" asked Suki noticing that the stairs had apparently collapsed years ago. She walked over to the where there stairs should have been and pointed to the floor below. "It's a pretty far fall."

"We can always earthbend some stairs." said Aang, joining her near the edge.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," said Toph. "Now that I'm actually down here it doesn't seem as stable as I'd thought. Bending the rock could weaken any support it could be giving to this entire cavern. We'll have to find another way down."

"Hey guys, come take a look at this." Sokka said, pointing to a metal design on the wall infront of where the stairs would be. "What do you think it is?"

Aang walked over to where Sokka was standing and examined the design. There was a hole in the center that couldn't have been more than an inch in diameter. He put his eye to it and looked through. It was dripping water and appeared to continue further through the wall.

"This hole keeps going into the wall somewhere." he stated.

"What could it be?" Katara asked as she walked up and examined it. She noticed the water dripping from it and tried to see if she could bend any water from the hole. To her surprised it squirted water about three feet and made a little puddle on the ground.

"Is it a water fountain or something?" Zuko laughed as he saw what had just happened.

"No, I don't think so." said Aang seriously. He looked at it closer. "I think it's a locking mechanism, like the ones they used at the Air Temples."

"That makes sense," Katara replied. "but how do you think we use it?"

"Try pushing water through it." he replied.

Katara bent water from one of the nearby waterfalls and forced it into the little hole. She watched as more and more water went into the hole and nothing happened.

"It's not doing anything." she finally declared.

"Wait!" cried Sokka as he reached into his pouch and pulled out the cloth he stored the vial of water in. He opened it carefully and set it on the ground. "Do you think this could have something to do with it?"

Zuko looked at it for a moment. "Well," he said. "It is about the right size to fit in the hole."

"Katara, try to bend this into the hole." Sokka said.

Katara focused as she bent the vial of ice up into the air and directed it towards the opening in the metal design. It fit into place perfectly with the top of the vial sticking out just barely enough to see. Suddenly they heard a loud sound.

"What is that!" cried Toph holding her ears.

"I don't know!" yelled Aang. He listened as he heard the sound of water freezing rapidly. The sound traveled through the walls and down below them before coming to a stop. He looked around when he saw that everyone else noticed the sound stopped as well.

"What was that?" asked Suki, looking around to see if anything had changed. Nothing had.

"I think the water that Katara pushed into the hole is frozen now, all of it." claimed Sokka.

"But nothing happened, aren't these things supposed to open a door?" she looked at Aang.

"I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, I was only suggesting what it might be." he replied.

Katara bent the vial out of its socket and put it back onto Sokka's cloth. She looked inside and the few inches she could see had been frozen solid was now blocked by solid ice.

"This is very strange." she said.

"I think I understand it now." Toph said, placing her hand on the ground. "When the ice was freezing I got a good look at where it was going as it collided with the metal. The hole leads down into the wall and to the bottom of the cavern, with side paths every couple of feet. I don't think the water was enough pressure to activate the mechanism."

Sokka suddenly started up, "But steam is!" he exclaimed. "Zuko, blast the inside of that hole with fire." he added making a firebending motion.

Zuko walked over infront of the hole and began to shoot fire into it. They heard a sound as steam was escaping from places in the rock below them. Suki looked down and saw a metal stairway being pushed from inside the wall out into a path leading to the central area.

"It's pushing a stairway into place!" Suki exclaimed as she watched it form.

-  
Not Finished with Chapter 3, just putting it up for now.


End file.
